Mr. and Mrs. Silva go to Harrisburg to fight for AEDs

Two years ago my wife, Christy, our friend Kelly Hagelauer and I sat down with state Sen. Andy Dinniman in his West Chester office and proposed a law to give children in schools a better chance against sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), which took the life of our 7-year-old son Aidan in 2010.

We have achieved our goal.

Gov. Tom Corbett just signed Act 35, legislation establishing a program to help all schools in Pennsylvania acquire AEDs (automated external defibrillators). AEDs are the only devices that can save a victim from SCA.

Christy and I owe a lot of credit to many people, including Sen. Dinniman and his staff, most notably Martin Indars and Christina Sappey. We will always take satisfaction in honoring Aidan’s memory in a way that will save the lives of other youngsters.

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But what a long and strange trip it’s been within the halls of Harrisburg.

Christy and I are teachers by profession, but over the last 24 months we became students and received an extensive education in citizen lobbying. We learned a lot about the horse-trading that takes place among our elected officials, even regarding a “no-brainer” issue like saving kids’ lives. We learned too much about how squabbles concerning issues like liquor privatization can delay and even derail totally unrelated bills like ours.

We learned about the games some politicians play to take credit when none is due.

But we also learned the value of respectful perseverance. We saw firsthand the benefit of building personal relationships with Harrisburg staffers through countless phone calls and e-mails. And we learned what can be accomplished by elected officials who do not care about their name atop a bill as long as it passes.

Our research with Sen. Dinniman’s staff of AED programs in other states led to the senator’s introduction of “Aidan’s Law,” otherwise known as Senate Bill 606, on March 1, 2013. It turns out researching and crafting Aidan’s Law was the easy part. The real work was just beginning.

The Senate Education Committee did not like the original version of Senate Bill 606. For three months, staffers negotiated alterations and on June 11, 2013, the committee’s 11 members unanimously moved the bill forward.

“Aidan’s Law” then moved to the Senate Appropriations Committee. There it lingered on July 17, 2013, when the General Assembly and governor decided to recess for the summer. That summer we strategized with the senator and his staff on how to proceed. On Oct. 1 we held an “action day” with key senators and their staffers in the morning and held a press conference in the main rotunda at noon. A month later, after diligent effort by committee staffers, the Senate Appropriations Committee altered the bill to its current form and attached the language to another bill, Senate Bill 267. While both parties supported the issue, it gained traction only when attached to legislation sponsored by a member of the opposite political party. Sen. Dinniman put the legislation ahead of “the win” and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (Montgomery County) agreed to accept the language on one of his bills. We could not be more grateful to both. With the transition completed, the full Senate, on Nov. 20, passed the bill unanimously, and we were off to the House of Representatives.

Despite unanimous support from the Senate, the House of Representatives, while supportive of the issue, preferred to see the progression of their own bill addressing SCA. And despite assurances from the House that ours would “definitely pass,” our bill stalled. The issue had universal support in both houses of the Legislature, everyone agreed that we needed a program to protect our kids, yet competition between the House and Senate replaced the one between Democrats and Republicans.

Finally, after extensive negotiations to which we were not privy, we received word that our bill’s language was attached to the House bill, with the original language of the House bill removed. So the House got their “win,” the Senate got their version through the House, and our kids are finally more protected for it.

As grateful as we are to those who agreed to play a role in shepherding this bill through, we are amazed at the fact that some in Harrisburg put their own insular bragging rights ahead of good governance. And if they were honest, they may admit that only they keep score in that regard. Our friends and neighbors expressed amazement at the fact that this was not already law. Maybe if our friends in Harrisburg focused less on provincial scorekeeping, they could more legitimately take proper credit. Maybe.

As a citizen who witnessed the process firsthand, I am grateful that there are elected officials and staffers in Harrisburg who really do focus on doing the right thing rather than focus on self-promotion. As a resident of Chester County, I am proud that Sen. Dinniman and his staff are among those people.